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In honor of the Olympics, AsapSCIENCE has been putting out more interesting videos than usual, and we totally love them for it. Not as much as we love jamming out to some hardcore tunes while we’re working out, though. Good think AsapSCIENCE is here to tell us why that is in the first place.

If the arrogance and aloofness of your regular household cat doesn’t put enough fear in your heart, breeders have created a new species of felines to dismiss you daily — but these one have been bred to look like werewolves.

Lykio Cats were developed from a breed of short-hair cat with a genetic mutation preventing them from developing a full coat of hair on their face, giving them their lycanthropic appearance.

In the end, we found that the cats are healthy, and the hair pattern is not from any known disease or disorder. It was determined that it was indeed a true natural mutation, and our breeding program began. September 14, 2011 we welcomed the first kitten from a Lykoi Cat to Lykoi Cat breeding…. She has been named “Daciana” and to date she is the only known second generation Lykoi.”

So if you want a werewolf that will easily fit in your apartment, go ahead and invest in a Lykio Cat. And then please upload a feline shot-by-shot remake of Thriller. Thank you.

Yup, this is 100% a true statement from Dong Nguyen, for sure. It’s certainly not a parody video done by Nick Douglas of Slacktory fame. Nope. Just a white dude with a Vietnamese name, talking about a game that he definitely created. Nothing else to see here. Take everything we say at face value for the rest of your lives.

Ah, what men don't dream of Princess Leia in the scene with Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi. Well, it's the ladies' turn! Redditor Buffitron's boyfriend gave her a real nice and sexy surprise straight out of Star Wars. She will soon learn to appreciate him.

Friday is the beginning of Girl Scout Cookie season (not rabbit or duck season). After you've gorged yourself on 3 boxes of Thin Mints in as many minutes, wash down your shame with an appropriate beer or wine selection. Beer & Brewing rounded up suggestions from around the web for which beers or wines to responsibly consume with particular cookies. Here's what the Beer Chicks recommend for Thin Mints:

Thin mints + Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout,Kiuchi Brewery, Japan. 7.5% ABV. - The Thin Mint is a masterpiece on its own, but paired with this thick stout from one of our favorite breweries out of Japan, the thin mint takes on another level of decadence. The minty chocolate mixed with coffee is like a peppermint mocha, and carries the kick of coffee and alcohol. We can polish off a whole box of thin mints no problem, and this is the perfect beer with which to wash those babies down!

If you love Somoas, then Melissa Mackaly of Central Track recommends Dirty Bastard:

Samoas.• A crisp cookie coated in caramel, sprinkled with toasted coconut and striped with a dark chocolate coating.• Paired best with a red dessert wine such as a Port, or an 8.5 percent ABV heavy ale, like a Founders Dirty Bastard.

I'm really not sure about these picks. It would be helpful if the Girl Scouts themselves provided a pairing guide or trained their door-to-door salespeople on the subject.

The distinct and unique characters of Pong are truly the perfect avatars upon which to reflect our essential and most inherent humanity. Also - Don't forget to SHARE your results with your social networks!

The Super Bowl quickly approaches, so animator Fraser Davidson made a little guide to help you understand American football as it is played by the NFL. If you're one of those who watch for the commercials and the food and since everyone else is watching, but you don't really understand the game, well, honestly this won't help a whole lot, but it will probably make you laugh a little, and that's worth something.

Some football fans may say, "Duh, doesn't everyone understand football?" But the average NFL game this season has drawn 16.8 million viewers. That's up from last year, to a little more than 5% of the U.S. population! And outside of the U.S. it's probably not that big a ratings success. -via Viral Viral Videos

Upon receipt of your letter, we kindly changed our imagery so not to confuse the general public with your clients image as we appreciate that there may have been a point of contention.

We have now removed any and all references to your client which we feel could mislead someone in to believing that there is in any way a link between the two.

As you can tell from our new community-submitted, updated materials, we make no visual or verbal reference to Kanye West but to a half-man-half-fish hybrid who is wearing sunglasses, again, totally separate from any resemblance to your client.

[...]

We request an end to the constant harassment and scare tactics.

Herein, we require the following from your client.

1. Cease and desist from any and all use of the mark ‘Coinye’ and other related words or phrases containing ‘Coinye’. Should you wish to challenge this request, We require with immediate affect that you supply us with any Intellectual Property proof you may own, including but not limited to, promotional material, video, audio, PR material containing the use of the name or terminology ‘Coinye’ in any capacity.

2.No further communication through our private email addresses shall be made in an empty [sic] to strong-arm myself and/or any other individual who operates a website or service containing references to ‘Coinye’ in an attempt to halt efforts on this open source project.

[...]

I do not see that there is a likelihood of confusion between the Trademark set forth by your client Kanye West and those being presented by under the Meme Crypto Currency Coinye Coins (“The Gay Fish”). The official site states, and has always stated, that we are not affilated with Kanye West. (See the FAQ section.) These sites are used to provide people with Coinye Coins so that they may purchase “Fish Sticks For Their Mouth.”

Used to be that if you wanted Uniqlo you had to physically go to the store. We’re willing to deal with that for some of the best, low cost basics on the market… except they don’t have stores in every major US metropolitan market. In other words, if you didn’t live in New York you were basically screwed. Don’t worry, even Uniqlo got with it and now you can pick up your own pair of one of the best deals ...

Man, outer space is dangerous—even in video games. A giant, record breaking player vs. player war broke out in the MMO game EVE Online yesterday, because someone basically forgot to pay rent on their space station. Yeah, well, some of us can’t even afford a space station to fight over, especially when it reportedly costs the equivalent of $300,000 in battle damage.

The whole thing started over someone in the game’s Pandemic and N3 coalitions missed a payment for protection of an area of space they use for their fleets. Apparently, when you miss a protection payment to EVE‘s virtual space-mafia (or a space-banker. I’m admittedly fuzzy on the details), your opposing forces, the in-game coalition CFC in this case, will swoop in to blow up all your stuff.

That’s just what happened yesterday morning, and as a result, the largest battle in the game’s ten year history broke out. Reports have varied on exact numbers, but at least 2,200 and possibly as many as 4,000 players showed up to battle for control of the star system where the fight originated. In-game currency losses racked up into the trillions as massive starships were destroyed, which reportedly totals about $300,000 in real-world currency.

I’m unclear on the how the conversion rate between online multiplayer space-money (ISK in EVE) and real money works, but players surely lost a lot of time and effort as the virtual fleets they spent so much time building were destroyed. I just hope no one spent any actual money on the in-game assets, but if players used services to buy game items with real money, that unpaid virtual rent could have real world consequences.

Of course, what’s the point in building a giant virtual fleet if you’re not going to use it in battle? As Pandemic and N3 member James Carl put it when talking to Phys.org, “Whatever happens, we’ll keep going. EVE is a universe full of grudges and constantly changing politics. If we were to lose, we’ll rebuild. Then, we’ll go back and start another war.”

Standpoint founder Ronnie Moas discusses labor issues revolving Apple and Amazon's incredible corporate wealth. Moas calls their behavior "obscene" and makes his case for a redistribution of wealth from the company to its employees.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about why I never joined Facebook. For those who are new to this discussion, here’s the short summary:

I have limited time and attention. I try to devote as much of it as possible to creating valuable things and spending time with my family and close friends. For a new tool to claim some of my time and attention from these activities it has to offer me a lot of value in return. Facebook falls well short of this threshold.

This post generated a lively debate in its comment thread. To be honest, this comments discussion is probably more valuable than the original post, as it covers a lot more ground, often quite eloquently.

A natural follow-up question, however, is whether this discussion changed my mind on the issue. The short answer: No. Not at all.

To provide a longer answer, I summarize below the four most common arguments in favor of Facebook that I received in reaction to my post (both publicly and privately), as well as my explanation for why the arguments didn’t move me closer to clicking “join.”

Argument #1: Facebook makes it possible to maintain lightweight, high-frequency contact with a large number of people spread around the world.

Facebook essentially invented this new type of social connection. Some people enjoy it. Some even use it as a replacement for a normal, in-person social life (usually, to their detriment). I have no interest in it. I’m close to my family and have good friends. I’d rather keep my time and attention focused on interacting deeply with them instead of pinging a thousand “friends” with exclamation-point laden wall posts.

Argument #2: Facebook might offer you personal or professional benefits that you don’t even know about. You cannot reject this service until you have tried it for a while.

I hear this argument a lot. I find it to be an incoherent approach to managing the tools in your life. If I had to test every potentially useful tool before deciding not to use it, I would end up spending the bulk of my life testing. My time and attention is valuable. If some company wants to make money off me using their service, they better have a compelling pitch for why it’s worth me taking away time and attention from my work, family and friends — even if just temporarily.

Argument #3: Facebook will not take your time and attention away from things you currently find important because you can access it on your phone during times, like waiting in line, that would otherwise be wasted.

This vision of Facebook use terrifies me. Facebook, like most social media, is addictive, because it offers, at all points, the possibility of finding out something that someone is saying about you. Once you get into the habit of seeking this distraction when temporarily bored, your ability to concentrate during other times will be reduced. If I start checking Facebook during my downtime, in other words, I’m convinced that the overall quality and quantity of time I can spend doing hard things — like writing or solving proofs — will, rather quickly, begin to decrease.

Furthermore, the idea that you can restrict your access to this addictive service to only downtime is naive. Think about the behavior of people you know: Facebook checking soon pervades all areas of your life, including those times when, in a pre-Facebook era, you would be interacting with family or friends. “You can access Facebook anywhere!”, in other words, is not the right way to persuade me.

Argument #4: Your general philosophy of only adopting a tool if it provides a clear and valuable benefit will deprive you of serendipity — think about all the interesting things you might be missing out on.

As a consequence of my approach to tools, I have few electronic inboxes to monitor or online services to fiddle with. This means I spend a surprising fraction of my work day actually doing hard work, leading to a professional life that is fulfilling and, to date, pretty successful (knock on wood). It also means that when I arrive home in the evening, I don’t touch a computer until the next morning — allowing me to spend my time focused on my family and friends, and giving my full attention to any number of things I already enjoy, like reading. (I read a lot.) I would be a fool to dilute this to chase the possibility of something “new.”

Fear of missing out, in other words, is not a valid argument for trashing what you already have.

#####

On an unrelated note: My friend Todd Henry (of The Accidental Creative fame) recently published a new book, Die Empty. Here’s the blurb I wrote for the jacket: “Die Empty looks past simple slogans to highlight detailed strategies for building a meaningful life; a must-read for anyone interested in moving from inspiration to action.” If you’re interested in these questions of work, meaning, and legacy, I encourage you to find out more…

Therese Oneill found some Russian guides for those traveling to America and sent it through Google's translator. What resulted was some eye-opening differences between the two cultures. A couple of examples:

“When Americans are talking, they might put their foot on a nearby chair, or even a table. They might cross their legs so that one foot rests on the opposite knee. In American culture, it is considered an acceptable norm, but often causes irritation in other countries.” (Национальные особенности этикета в США)

“Welcome and introductions: men and women tend to shake hands. Mutual kissing and kissing ladies' hands is not accepted. Also, women play a greater role in business. Often they insist to be treated exactly as an equal and not as a lady. In this regard, it is not acceptable to be excessively gallant, and you should avoid personal questions (do not find out whether she is married). (Национальные особенности этикета в США)

Did you know that crossing one's legs was irritating in other cultures? The article also addresses the American habits of smiling a lot and not wanting to listen to complaints. Read the rest at mental_floss.

Americans tend to ask people they've just met where they are from. If the person is obviously white, a simple answer like "here" or "New York City" will suffice. The question is just an icebreaker. But if you are not obviously white, your answer can elicit followup questions that grow tiring after hearing them over and over for years. People ask my daughter where she is from, and if she says "here," they say, no, where are you really from? If she says "China," they compliment her on her English, which is her only language. Since we live in a small town, she was once even asked which restaurant she belonged to -which she found hilarious, as if there is obviously no other reason an Asian person would live here. Those are common experiences for people of Asian descent all over America, whether they were born in the U.S. or not.

Sculptor (and sometimes cartoonist) Shing Yin Khor wrote a comic about putting up with people who first and foremost want to know her ethnic background, even when they really don't care. She addresses her concerns to her childhood hero, the Yellow Power Ranger (Trini Kwan) as the childhood superhero she identified with. Her funny but thought-provoking comic posted at the Toast is much longer than the excerpt here, and some subject matter is NSFW. -via Metafilter